Get to know the Ohio Alliance team

Silaka Lugo, Operations Manager

Silaka Lugo joined the Ohio Alliance in October 2025 as Operations Manager. Her background is in finance and operations, having spent the last decade as a finance and operations manager and consultant supporting nonprofit organizations with city, state, and federal grant reporting, budget management, and compliance across diverse portfolios of clients.

She builds the organization's operational and financial infrastructure to help advance the Ohio Alliance's mission of strengthening school-based health care in Ohio. She works closely with the Executive Director and Board of Directors to support sound fiscal management, strategic planning, and organizational governance, ensuring the Ohio Alliance has the systems, policies, and resources in place to operate effectively and sustainably as it grows its statewide impact.

Silaka also takes the lead in planning the Ohio Alliance's Annual Conference, which brings together school-based health center providers, school nurses, mental health professionals, administrators, and policymakers from across Ohio for a day of shared learning, networking, and professional development. The conference features workshops and sessions on the latest research, policy developments, and best practices in school-based health care, offering attendees practical tools and connections to strengthen their work serving Ohio's students.

Silaka studied Public Affairs at The Bernard M. Baruch College's Marxe School of Public and International Affairs (CUNY), where she gained a strong foundation in public policy, organizational management, and business administration, skills she now applies to building sustainable infrastructure for mission-driven organizations. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Public Affairs from The Bernard M. Baruch College - CUNY.

Learn more about Silaka in her own words in the Q & A below.

What brought you to the world of school-based health care, and what’s your “why”? 

 I previously worked with organizations centered around youth development, where I saw firsthand how much models centered on youth well-being matters.

When a child is healthy, they learn best, and that idea has stuck with me. I wanted to bring my operational expertise to an organization where I could help build the infrastructure to support programming that lets that model thrive at scale.

What’s the most rewarding part of your role? 

 Our annual conference brings people together from across the state! It's fulfilling to see something that takes months to plan finally come together. I get to work with the Ohio Alliance team and our wonderful planning committee, then watch attendees make connections, learn best practices, and celebrate wins with others doing the same work throughout the state.

When you think about school-based health care in Ohio, what gives you hope or inspires you? 

 What inspires me most is hearing the real stories behind the data: the student who can finally see the board clearly because she got glasses through her school health center, the student whose asthma is now managed so he isn't missing class for emergency room visits, the kids who have consistent access to dental care for the first time.

Those stories have made me more compassionate and given me a deeper appreciation for how much this model reduces barriers to care. Students miss less school, parents miss less work, and families get more support in caring for their children. Knowing our organization helps make that possible for families across the state is what keeps me inspired.

When you’re not working to strengthen school-based health care, how do you like to spend your time? 

 When I'm not working, I'm out with my family enjoying all that Ohio has to offer, whether that's a local metro park, a food festival, or visiting family elsewhere in the state. We're always looking for our next favorite food spot, and there's something nice about discovering how much variety Ohio has to offer, season to season. Sometimes that's visiting the Columbus Library Festival in the summer, a pumpkin patch in the fall, COSI in the winter, or Franklin Park Conservatory to see the flowers bloom in the spring.

What’s something about you that might surprise people? 

 I have a real love for ergodic and epistolary literature. These are books told through letters, diary entries, footnotes, or other unconventional formats where the structure of the story is just as important as the plot itself. There's something about the puzzle-like nature of those stories that I find fun and absorbing.

Silaka at the Progress Exhibit at COSI